I've been in Japan for 10 years and have witnessed injustices and bias towards foreigners by the police. I have even been an interpreter on call for the police department and attended their lecture on foreign crime and criminals. Their main target group which they call the worst criminals in Japan, are the Chinese, followed by the Pakistanies and Koreans, who funnel money illegally back home and are involved in all kinds of robberies and petty crimes.
When you know the average police officer is trained to suspect that every "gaijin" (foreigner) is a potential criminal, it's easier to understand why they are so many cases of injustice towards foreigners in Japan.
An American friend of mine once got beat up on the street by some "shinpira", sorts of wanna be teenage right-wing "yakuza" (they hated his short military like haircut & all american look). They were 6 on him and kicking him and throwing bikes at him. Luckily he was solid and was able to get away and on his feet and go to the police. He was followed by these guys and detained for violent behavior. Had these scums pressed charges, he would have lost his job and be jailed and deported.

It seems a lot of paid hacks from Japan are so scared of this getting out that they've decided to flood the comments section with ad hominem attacks on the author and Economist magazine. Here's a hint hacks, the more you protest, the more we believe the story.

It seems a lot of paid hacks from outside Japan are so clueless about the realities that they've decided to flood the comments section with feeble attacks on residents of Japan who know what they're talking about and who don't care for poor journalism. Here's a hint hacks, the more you protest, the more ridiculous the story sounds.

I think James Reilly is being sarcastic about your original comment, and has deliberately copied your style to illustrate the outrageous nature of that comment.
As I have already told elsewhere in this comment section, it is very simple to check if a given poster is a 'one-off' name specific to this article. Maybe I should run that check on you too...

I am an American who's lived in Japan for 20 years, with a permanent residence visa I obtained within about 5 years. I can say that this person's experience is far, far from the norm in Japan and the number of instances of abuse by immigration officials or police I've witnessed or heard of have been...zero. Once a cop wanted to concern himself with the ownership of a bicycle a friend of mine was riding, that was the extent to this kind of thing in Japan. When my friend wrote a letter of complaint to the police, the officer and his boss came to my friend's apartment to apologize.

Japanese officials are generally the most polite and reasonable people you could want to meet. Perhaps because I am a bilingual American who works hard to be polite, their attitude towards me is different. I also believe a good number (20%? 40%?) of the facts in this story are exaggerated in the author's favor since there are no other accounts.

I agree with other posters, why the heck is this being made into a massive story by The Economist?

Yes, Chris (and I know it is you, Christopher Johnson, you cannot say something on Debito's site under your own name, then comes here and say the exact same thing, with the same wording and not expect people to notice), we have heard about those. And we believe those - well, aside from the "murdered" part of the story about the Ghanian. "Killed by excessive force" would fit the facts of his case, "murdered" means they were actively trying to kill him, and planned to kill him. As a "journalist" you should know what words mean, and use them correctly.

It is also true, is it not, Chris, that the Ghanian was physically resisting deportation? I point this out not to excuse what happened, but to explain what happened. To make all the facts clear. The airline staff and other passengers on the plane witnessed him struggling and resisting as hard as he could against the immigration officers, even while handcuffed. The officers did what immigration officers and police do anywhere in the world when confronted with someone who is fighting them - they forcibly restrained him. They went too far.

Again, this is not to excuse what they did. They went too far. As did the Ghanian. Did he deserve to die? Of course not - but had he not put up such a fight, when he was absolutely in the wrong as far as being an illegal, he'd be alive today somewhere in Ghana. Or for that matter, he might even be alive in Japan, if his wife had been able to successfully contest the decision that their marriage was a sham and gotten him readmitted with a proper visa. Those are the facts of his story.

We believe in facts, Chris. We believe Amnesty's report. A lot of us do not believe you, because you are selective with which facts you present. Because you supply information, and then try to erase it when you realize what you gave out does not help your cause at all - it just makes things worse. Your clumsy attempts to cover your tracks makes things worse still. And your charming way with words ("Would you ask a rape victim if she was wearing a skirt?") is the icing on this very sad cake.

Your sole argument appears to be that because some cases of abuse at immigration are true (and no one disputes the Amnesty cases), ALL allegations of abuse at immigration are true.

If you genuinely don't see the flaw in your logic, you're perhaps not the best person to be offering thenmselves as a reasoned and intelligent analyst.

When even the contributors to debito.org, a site generally viewed as always ready to assume the worst about Japan when it comes to foreigners, find it difficult to reconcile the inconsistencies and evasions, Mr Johnson has some serious credibility issues.

Mr Johnson should be aware that he's creating problems for the next person who has a genuine grievance with immigration at Narita and wants to publicise their case.

The story that is presented is mostly complete hyperbole - the author knows this (and those who know him know this).

If you have any doubts about what "actually" transpired you can easily find accounts of similar cases on various message boards and blogs. The difference is that in most accounts people willingly acknowledge they took some liberties with immigration procedures and policies (i.e., visa issues).

The fact that this guy has managed to generate so much noise over his alleged "gaijin gulag" experience speaks volumes - not about the claimed injustices meted out by Japanese immigration (or Japan more generally) but about the gullibility and lack of critical thinking employed by quite a few of his outraged "supporters".

That this was aired on the economist certainly does the publication no credit.

There are a lot of problems with this story. First of all, notice that Johnson refuses to explain the true status of his visa. The going to Korea for three days and then returning is an old trick that expats in Japan use to sneakily renew their tourist visas. It is against Japanese law to abuse their immigration system this way. Once (rightfully) detained, the detainee is obligated to pay various fees and fines as part of being processed for deportation. This is not a "shakedown." If you refuse to pay the fees, the security agency will be understandably upset and hostile. Johnson got caught gaming the system. Embarrassed, he is trying to sell it as some human rights abuse that he is no longer allowed to live as a freeloader in Japan. He just makes it harder for all the rest of us expats living in Japan who actually follow the rules.

I have lost a lot of respect for TE.
It beggars belief that you would make a story out of what is a seriously suspect article.
Many parts of his story are simply very hard to believe about the Japan I have lived in for 20 years, but let's forget that for a moment.
Surely, if one important fact about his story can be shown to be a lie, then can we all agree that the rest is probably bull shit as well?
As many people have said, it is impossible that any security guard had a gun, real or fake. Anyone with even a fake gun at any airport is going to find themselves in big trouble pretty quick.
I would very much like to see a follow up done on this story by TE, ideally with an apology in advance, for very poor judgement.
I sincerely hope there are none at TE rubbing their hands in glee at the buzz that this story has created.

When i was stationed there, i loved it. Later, i went back as security consultant and saw the ugly truth about Japanese people. They don't like any one with darker skin. Ask any East Asian, South Asian, Arab,or blacks then you will get the true picture of Japanese society. The most racist Society of all. Disclaimer: I am a Black man from Alabama.

on the contrary, i believe japanese girls are actually ATTRACTED to people with darker skin. i have lived in japan for 5 years now, i went to a university called APU where around 5000 students from more than 50 countries came to study there. from my experience, a lot of japanese girls are dating south asians and arabs. a japanese friend of mine(girl) once went into my country(indonesia, south east asia, basically the people have darker skin) to study for a year. when she came back, she said that she fell in love with some police-turned-singer whose face is not even attractive to indonesians.http://www.mediaalien.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Briptu-Norman-Kamar...
here's the link if you're interested.

so, the conclusion is, i don't believe japanese hate people with darker skin. don't know about blacks though, but as far as i know, they too don't get treated badly.

maybe you were just unlucky, meeting old people who are conservative. i have seen some grandpa abusing a chinese girl on a bus. from what he said, i guess he hated foreigners. my suggestion is, try meeting young people. they are A LOT more open-minded, and are very welcome to foreigners.

by the way, east asia, according to wikipedia, consists of JAPAN, china, korea(south and north), taiwan, hong kong, and macau. the people of the said countries basically have white skin.

"Gulag for Gaijin"?! Does this arrogant man not know what a Gulag was?!
Why not "Auschwitz for air travellers" or "Nanking for non-residents?
I would suggest "Dachau for douchebags" or "Mauthausen for moanbags".

It really is unbelievable that The Economist would publish this without checking his visa status. My guess is that you are defending other journalists regardless of the facts (or without knowing them). His account of the whole ordeal is sensational and melodramatic, and far from believable. Not to say that it didn't happen, but it clearly is one side of the story and could very well be clouded with vengeance.

I lived in Japan for over 5 years, thank you very much. In fact, the last experience with immigration was the opposite of this crazy story.

I live outside of Japan now, my spouse is Japanese and my oldest child has both a Japanese and foreign passport. We entered Japan last spring, when my youngest child was only 3 months old, and only had a foreign passport. I remember there was some discussion with the immigration officer and he went away for awhile to discuss something with another officer. I was nervous for a little while, since we usually have no trouble with immigration -- why would we? Anyway, he returned an told us that he would let me youngest child enter Japan with a special extended visa, since he was worried if there was another disaster that it might mean that disrupt our travel plans and ability to leave within the 90 day window. He didn't have to do this, he simply cared about us.

I have never experienced anything but decent people the 5 years I lived in Japan. Of course, I didn't hang out in Roppongi and I did make an effort to learn the language from the start.

After spending some time studying the US immigration system in law school, I can't honestly say we're much better. Immigration generally seems to be a legal black hole, in which governments are allowed to grant detainees minimal and inadequate rights.

Which is more shocking? CJ's ordeal, or the way he dramatized it out of all proportion, with a skill of reality distortion that even Japanese Media would envy...
CJ might get a job 'reporting' for one of them after all....

The USA has the capacity to eavesdrop on every single form of communication globally (with the exception perhaps of Blackberry) and actively deploys this in a global network of listening posts.

The UK has extensive CCTV in all urban and retail centres, major roads and transport hubs. Mobile signals are routinely hacked. Undercover police have infiltrated campaign groups to the extent of cynically fathering activists children to gain the trust of the groups.

The above societies casually deploy extremely sophisticated surveillance, under cover of legislation such as the UK's Official Secrets Act.

One could argue that the cookies in your PC are breaching your civil liberties, not to mention your Facebook account and the 3G tracker device in your pocket.

Unfortunately, these are commonly tolerated as forfeits for the freedom of movement, communication and interconnectivity that we all enjoy in this modern age.

On the rare occasion that you are asked for your ID by an analogue J cop on his bicycle, put it into context. And thank
your lucky stars that you're not a black man in New York or London. Or a motorist in Alabama with only an international licence as ID.

If you still don't like it here, you can always go home - see how welcoming they are, now that you're all growed up and cynical.

I must say that in several entries to Japan over the years, and nine months of travelling all over the country by car, I never had any problem whatsoever with the authorities. Extending my stay at the immigration office in Kobe was surprisingly easy and friendly. At no time was I ever hassled by the police, or even asked for my driver's license or ID. In fact, I cannot recall ever seeing the police, except as a pedestrian watching their rather amusing technique for testing drivers for alcohol.

Compare this with China, which I drove all over (100,000km) after my stay in Japan. There were military and police checkpoints everywhere and I usually had to show my license, passport, vehicle registration, insurance and foreign resident's card SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY. This was particularly true in Xinjiang, where the checks occurred outside every town and village. On a couple of occasions, I was detained for hours or even all day as the personnel questioned me and rang contacts in my address book.

In both cases, I am sure it helped that I am a Caucasian male. I am sure it would be different in Japan if I were black or Chinese, or in China if I were Japanese or black.

The preconceptions about Japan are usually something silly and crude. But this is a serious story concerning massive human rights violations that could very well be factual. It would be downright cruel and heartless to outright dismiss it just because it does not confirm your view of Japan, whatever that it may be.

It's more about the facts not lining up. He flew into Narita from a 3 day bump to Korea and won't devulge his visa status. If he was not in the wrong, he would have had nothing to hide. He also has changed the story on his blog a number of times since first posting it. There are plenty of problems with racism in Japan, and those stories deserve proper attention. But this story has a lot of holes in it.

You should read the original blog post before he sanitizes it completely. (what is posted here on the Economist is already heavily excerpted)

His abusive rant about the woman official shows a lot about his character (and attitude towards women). He sounds emotionally immature at best, and a bit unstable at worst.

The fact anyone is giving him attention is sad. There are real injustices that deserve to be covered. Not some whiney guy who was shacking up with a rocker in Tokyo, got caught coming in on a tourist visa too many times, and now is trying to stir the pot.